As protests continue in Thailand, we speak to John Virgoe from the International Crisis Group, an independent organisation committed to preventing and resolving conflict.

From Westminster, Guardian columnist Michael White analyses political performances in the emergency Commons debate on the pre-budget report.

David Blanchflower, one of the nine members of the Bank of England's monetary policy committee, has spent much of the past year warning of a looming recession. Nobody listened. He speaks frankly with the Guardian's Ed Pilkington.

From Rome, John Hooper tells us about a complex of passageways found under a housing estate in Palermo used by the Sicilian mafia.

And Martin Wainwright visits Richmond, North Yorkshire, which has just been named Britain's best town alongside Skipton.